Police Briefs 12/13/18

ORANGE PARK – An Orange Park area man faces felony sex charges after he allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old Clay County girl.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Willie Edward J. Shipp, 24, on Dec. 6 after an investigation that began in September.

According to the CCSO report, on Sept. 10, the girl’s parents contacted law enforcement after reading sexually-explicit text messages Shipp had sent to the teen’s phone.

In November, CCSO officers went to Shipp’s job in Jacksonville where they interviewed him about the allegations. On Dec. 4, officers contacted Shipp a second time and asked him to cooperate with the investigation.

On Dec. 6, he turned himself in at the CCSO Middleburg sub-station on Blanding Boulevard where he was booked on one count of lewd or lascivious behavior on a victim age 12-16.

At press time, Shipp remained in the Clay County Jail where his bond is set at $50,003.

The Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested M. Lee Danielle Brinson, 30, on Dec. 6 at 2:30 p.m. after an investigation.

According to the police report, Brinson scratched her nine-year-old daughter on the right side of her neck while choking her on Nov. 22. Police said when they went to the home with a Department of Children and Families investigator, they found several wine bottles on the ground.

CCSO investigators made several attempts to reach Brinson after their initial response to the home. On Dec. 6, she turned herself in at the CCSO Middleburg sub-station on Blanding Boulevard where he was booked on one count of child abuse without great bodily harm.

She is free on bond.

Court rejects Orange Park area man’s appeal

TALLAHASSEE – An Orange Park area man serving a 20-year sentence for stabbing a friend while riding home from a barbecue party will not be getting a new hearing.

The First District Court of Appeal has ruled against 40-year-old Andrew Michael Elswick who appealed to the court about his 2017 sentencing for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Elswick, who acted as his own attorney during the trial, appealed his case on grounds that the trial court erred when they ruled he was competent to stand trial and represent himself pro se. Elswick claimed that Fourth Circuit Judge Michael Sharrit did not conduct a proper Faretta inquiry before his case went to trial. A Faretta hearing is held to determine whether a defendant is knowingly and intelligently waiving their right to legal counsel and understands the intricacies of court proceedings and the law,

The case began March 28, 2015 when Elswick had been at a party in the area of Fortuna Drive and Loango Road with the victim. According to the arrest report from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office, Elswick was a passenger in the front seat when he began repeatedly striking the driver, David Edward Russell. A rear seat passenger who witnessed the attack told officers she could not see if Elswick had a weapon, however, Clay County Fire Rescue treated Russell for a laceration to the right side of his face along the jawline and a puncture wound in his mid-right back area.

In the six-page ruling, the First District Court of Appeal points out how Elswick’s competency had “vacillated before trial” and how he had been evaluated in late 2105 to determine if he was competent to stand trial. After being found competent that year, court officials questioned Elswick’s competency a second time.

“The following year, defense counsel’s concerns about Elswick’s competency surfaced again, and Elswick was reevaluated. This time the experts concluded he was incompetent to proceed. He was adjudicated incompetent and committed to a mental health facility,” states the ruling.

After being treated, Elswick was again determined competent to stand trial and, in late 2016, the case was reset for trial.

The ruling also states that the trial court conducted a Faretta inquiry in January 2017. At pre-trial hearings on April 3 and April 17, 2017, trial court officials again offered court-appointed counsel to Elswick and “stressed the risks of proceeding pro se,” according to the ruling.

In concluding its Dec. 10 ruling, the First District Court of Appeal said Elswick made the decision to represent himself “with eyes open.”

“The court repeatedly explained the dangers of self-representation, and Elswick often rejected appointed counsel after consulting with standby counsel. We find no Faretta error in this case,” according to the ruling.

OP man involved in Westside fatality

JACKSONVILLE – The Florida Highway Patrol said charges are pending in a two-vehicle crash that killed a Jacksonville man on Jacksonville’s Westside.

FHP said Marshall Waldeck, 59, was traveling westbound on State Road 134 on Dec. 5 at 6:04 p.m. in a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria when the vehicle crossed the center lane and hit a car head-on in the eastbound lane. The crash occurred near the intersection of Jammes Road.

Waldeck’s Ford was struck by a 1997 Lincoln Town Car driven by Shane Dykes, 46, of Orange Park. Both cars came to rest in the eastbound lanes of SR 134, which was blocked for about four hours, said FHP.

Waldeck was pronounced dead at Orange Park Medical Center, which also treated Dykes for serious injuries. A passenger in Dykes’ town car, Mason Fuller, 8, of Orange Park, received minor injuries.

Hit and run ends in 15-year sentence

JACKSONVILLE – A 47-year-old Middleburg man faces 15 years in state prison for running over his estranged girlfriend with his vehicle last February while she was walking to church.

Fourth Circuit Court Judge Linda McCallum sentenced Larry Lee Jamison on Dec. 5 in a Jacksonville courtroom after being found guilty last month of one count each of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of a crash involving injury. Jamison received a five-year concurrent sentence for the leaving the scene and was given credit for having served 297 days in county jail.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, on Feb. 11, Chauntrell Knox was walking to church when Jamison drove his car into her in the area near Bethel Baptist Church at 215 Bethel Baptist St.

Knox told police she and Jamison had previously ended their relationship due to domestic violence in which she had to obtain an injunction for protection, which was dismissed on Jan. 25, against Jamison. She also told police she was in severe pain from the crash, which also broke her right ankle.

After hitting Knox with his car, Jamison exited the vehicle and yelled at Knox, returned to his vehicle and drove away without calling police or rendering aid. Jamison was found in the church, sitting in a pew and acting as if the incident had not taken place. Surveillance from Florida State College at Jacksonville captured the crash on video.

He was convicted on the charges on Nov. 15.

From the Follow-Up File:

Disgraced school custodian serving time for child abuse

MIDDLEBURG – When the Clay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Michael Anthony Scoble, 27, on Feb. 23 at his home, he would be charged with lewd or lascivious molestation on a 13-year-old girl.

The Clay County School District would go on to suspend Scoble from his job as a custodian at Wilkinson Elementary School after learning of his arrest. Four days after his arrest, the State Attorney’s Office would file an information officially charging Scoble three counts of lewd or lascivious molestation on a child between the ages of 12 and 16.

The victim told police that she was in Scoble’s home snuggling with him when he reached into her undergarments and fondled her breasts and later touched her bare private areas.

“The victim felt uncomfortable and left the room,” according to the CCSO report. However, she later returned and snuggled again.

As his case med through the courts, prosecutors sought to forego prosecution of the three counts of lewd or lascivious molestation, and instead, on Oct. 2 in open court, they filed a verbal information that added one count of child abuse against Scoble.

After reading the new information, the same day, the court found Scoble guilty of the child abuse charge – a third degree felony – and sentenced him to 21 months in a Florida state prison to be followed by 24 months of probation. He was admitted into Blackwater River Correctional Facility on Oct. 31.